Events

From Derry to the Pontiac – A Publishing Journey

8 October 2022 / 9 a.m. EDT

Join us in person at Knox Presbyterian Church (Lisgar & Elgin) in Geneva Hall.  Please use the Garden Entrance on Elgin Street. Limited free street parking is available on Saturdays, and the City Hall Parking Garage is available for $2.00.

To join online, please register here.

Presenter: Nancy Conroy

Nancy completed six years of research and writing on the Dales of Clarendon as of January 2022. The story traces the journey of the Dales from their home in County Derry to the wilderness of Clarendon township and documents how the family both survived and thrived. This presentation will provide highlights of her experience getting the rough manuscript into book format and ultimately into the hands of readers. The book was self-published with the assistance of Friesen Press. The book combines genealogy, social history, and family stories, in describing the adventures of the Dales. 

Nancy Dale Conroy, the author of From Derry to the Pontiac, has a keen interest in the past. She was born in Shawville, Quebec, as were both her parents, and she wanted to find out more about her Clarendon Dales. Countless hours were spent in Shawville, Quebec, primarily at the Pontiac Archives. A visit to Northern Ireland helped provide additional information about the Dales and Wilsons of Ulster. One of the biggest surprises was that her ancestors were originally from Scotland making them Ulster Scots. Her DNA confirms this, with a 54% attribution to Scotland.

Alfred Guidal and his land occupancy maps of Ontario

8 October 2022 / 10 a.m. EDT

Join us in person at Knox Presbyterian Church (Lisgar & Elgin) in Geneva Hall.  Please use the Garden Entrance on Elgin Street. Limited free street parking is available on Saturdays, and the City Hall Parking Garage is available for $2.00.

To join online, please register here.

Presenter: Bruce S. Elliott

While most Ontario genealogists know and make use of the county wall maps of the 1860s and the county atlases of the 1870s (many of which were reprinted a century later), fewer are aware of their 20th-century counterparts. This presentation explores the career of Alfred Guidal and the creation, form and locations of the land occupancy maps, atlases and directories he published in 1916-18.

Bruce Elliott, who retired from Carleton University’s History Department in 2019, has been a member of Ottawa Branch OGS since 1971 and was its Chair in 1979-81, and is member No. 11 of BIFHSGO. He is the author of Irish Migrants in the Canadas, The City Beyond: A History of Nepean, and Origins and Early History of Carp Village.

Anxious Mothers, Voluntary Aid Workers and Military Nurses:
Letters from Canadian women during the First World War 
12 November 2022 / 9 a.m. EST

Join us in person at Knox Presbyterian Church (Lisgar & Elgin) in Geneva Hall.  Please use the Garden Entrance on Elgin Street. Limited free street parking is available on Saturdays, and the City Hall Parking Garage is available for $2.00.

To join online, please register here.

Presenter: Dr. Melanie Morin-Pelletier

Abstract: to follow

Dr. Melanie Morin-Pelletier is the historian, War and Society at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. She is the author of Briser les ailes de l'ange: Les infirmières militaires canadiennes (1914-1918) and has published multiple articles on military nursing and the impact of the war on the home front. She has curated the major exhibitions: Fighting in Flanders. Gas. Mud. Memory (2014), Home Front 1917 (2015), Vimy: Beyond the Battle (2017), Armour (2018) and co-curated Lost Liberties: The War Measures Act (2021).

Stories from the War 

12 November 2022 / 10 a.m. EST

Join us in person at Knox Presbyterian Church (Lisgar & Elgin) in Geneva Hall.  Please use the Garden Entrance on Elgin Street. Limited free street parking is available on Saturdays, and the City Hall Parking Garage is available for $2.00.

To join online, please register here.

Presenter: Carol Annett

As an RCAF bomb aimer during WWII, Richard Glanville “Dick” MacKinnon survived parachuting from a burning aircraft into occupied France. Though memories of that time remained for the rest of his life, he rarely spoke of his experience. When he died 20 years ago, he left behind a collection of war memorabilia—a scrapbook, mementoes, letters, and newspaper articles, many of which he added over the years. Combining material from Dick’s collection, his own recorded memories, and additional research findings, this talk begins with the war years and ends with discoveries made after his death. The presentation tells the story of Dick MacKinnon and of people connected with him during the war—including his comrades who perished, and members of the French Resistance who risked their lives to shelter him. 

Carol Annett’s genealogy journey began when she inherited her father’s family history files as well as his war memorabilia when he died in 2002. She joined BIFHSGO a few years later. In 2010, after visiting the cemetery in France in which her father’s comrades are buried, she wrote about them for the BIFHSGO writing group. In 2022, the isolation of the pandemic has provided the time to delve into her father’s war collection in detail and write a more complete account to share with others, particularly Dick’s relatives and descendants. As a writer, Carol believes that telling people’s stories is an important part of remembrance.

Christmas Social

10 December 2022 / 9 a.m. EST

Watch for details...

Great Moments in Genealogy

10 December 2022 / 10 a.m. EST

Join us online or in person for our September meeting. 

Join us in person at Knox Presbyterian Church (Lisgar & Elgin) in Geneva Hall.  Please use the Garden Entrance on Elgin Street. Limited free street parking is available on Saturdays, and the City Hall Parking Garage is available for $2.00.

To join online, please register here.

Presenters: Malcolm Thurgur, John McConkey

Using tools and luck on a brick wall

The only information Malcolm Thurgur initially had about his paternal grandmother was the maiden name and date of birth on her marriage certificate—and both those things turned out to be false! Three years of record searching failed to produce his grandmother’s birth certificate or parental details. However, he did receive clues that eventually led him to succeed in identifying her; Ancestry and other DNA organization's records and DNA analysis gave him the answers he was seeking. Malcolm will reveal how he learned her real name and life history by using DNA and WATO (a DNA Painter tool), as well as many unusual sources including the Coram charity.

Malcolm Thurgur was born in Southampton, Hampshire, in October 1941, in the middle of an air raid bombing!!  Malcolm stayed with his mother after her divorce in 1946. When his mother remarried, the family went to live in St. Albans, Hertfordshire. Over time, Malcolm became curious as to who his birth father was. By the time he was 18, he had asked his mother, however, she was never forthcoming. And it wasn’t until he was 50, after the death of his mother, that he met his “sister”. Malcolm never met the father named on his birth certificate or his birth father. However, both Ancestry and DNA gave him the answers he was looking for.

Malcolm went to Brunel University in London and emigrated to Montreal in July 1966 where he worked as a scientific programmer for Canadair (now Bombardier). Malcolm returned to England, where he did a part-time M.Sc. (Mathematics-Numerical Analysis) at Brunel University, he returned to Ottawa in 1970 and has been here ever since. Malcolm worked as an IT Principal Consultant /Project Manager in the private sector and the Federal Government.  Malcolm has also been a volunteer for the Tucson Church of the LDS Family History Centre.

Maggie McConkey - what became of you?

Born in 1883, Maggie was the illegitimate daughter of John McConkey's great granduncle, George. As a young child she lived with her mother and later her step-father in London, England. George had returned to his birthplace in Ireland. The 1911 census, however, shows Maggie living with George in Bangor, Co Down. She is still there when he dies in 1917 and she is the main beneficiary of his estate. But then the trail goes cold. Did she return to England or remain in Ireland? Did she ever re-estabish contact with her mother? Did she marry and have children? John describes how this intriguing puzzle was solved.

John McConkey has roots in Northern Ireland but was born in England. He and his wife emigrated to Canada in 1971 and for the past 40 years have lived in Ottawa. John was a 17-year employee of Nortel Networks. He has been a member of BIFHSGO since 2006 and served two years as BIFHSGO's Director of Research and Projects.